Why did Apple remove the QuickTime controls from the Finder windows? I now have to launch the movie if I want to examine its contents or play from the beginning in the window. What a stupid idea.
The QuickTime controls aren’t really gone, they’re just a little harder to find. In Mac OS 10.5, aka Leopard, a Finder window will indeed show you a preview of a QuickTime movie, if you’re using the Column view (go to View > Columns, press Command-3, or click the Column View button in the toolbar). Select a QuickTime movie in the column, and in the column next to it, you’ll see a preview—just mouse over it to make a Play button appear, and then mouse over the playing video to see the Stop button.
Quick Look rocks our worlds on a daily basis.
You can’t scrub through a QuickTime file that way, but remember that Quick Look (a fantastic feature arguably worth Leopard’s entire $129 sticker price) will let you preview QuickTime files without opening them at all. Select the file and press the spacebar: Voilà--the file plays in a resizable, movable Quick Look window, and you can jump around in time and even watch the video full-screen.
